At the very least, the Toronto Film Festival is widely considered amongthe top four film festivals in the world, alongside Cannes, Berlin andVenice (it was rated number one in an LA TIMES industry poll). Theevent, which will host 350 sales and acquisitions executives, lures $7.5million in tourism and packs a $30 million economic wallop for its hostregion.

The world premiere of Jean-Jacques Annaud’s new film, “Seven Years in Tibet“, will be the capper to ten days of screenings, at the 1997 TorontoFilm Festival, the event’s Director Piers Handling revealed yesterday.The film stars Brad Pitt and features David Thewlis (“Naked“). Among theworld premieres in the Festival’s “Gala” section are: “The Assignment“,directed by Christian Duguay and starring Donald Sutherland, BenKingsley and Aidan Quinn; “Gattaca“, directed by Andrew Niccol, andstarring Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke; and “Artemisia“, directed by AgnesMerlet. North American premieres in the section include: “Chinese Box“,directed by Wayne Wang and starring Jeremy Irons, Gong Li and MaggieCheung; “The Wings of the Dove“, directed by Iain Softley, and starringHelena Bonham Carter and Linus Roache.